I think that you're right about their being such a wide array of subgenres under the metal umbrella. There's something there that makes them all metal at their core, but from their just about anything goes. I like that about metal too. It makes experiencing new bands and sounds that much better. I am miles away (for the most part) from the bands that brought me into the metal fold now, having started with the standard bearers, moving on to metalcore (which makes me cringe now), then going for the super heavy stuff, to grind, to a limited selection of doomy stuff, to a blend of just about everything. That said, there is such a glut of stuff out there that the really great music is hard to come by.

Sun Oct 14, 2012 4:31 pm

futuristxen

Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 19377
Location: Tighten Your Bible Belt

@neuro:
I've been listening to that Winterfylleth album for a few weeks. It's alright.

Ruins of Beverast is one I've heard a lot about and have been meaning to check for awhile.

I find metal-archives to be a really valuable website in terms of finding new music to listen to. Their forums are pretty robust in the recommendation section.

Another few I really like:
Negura Bunget

Coldworld
</param>

Sun Oct 14, 2012 8:20 pm

NeuroA champion of Kurtis SP

Joined: 19 Jul 2002
Posts: 7852

yeah i have coldworld good stuff

Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:15 am

Woland

Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Posts: 156
Location: Finland

Seems like B. Dolan knows what's up in the metal department:

I have the same Sólstafir shirt. Saw them live earlier this year... GREAT show.

Anyways, Polish Mgła is really good. Their drummer is inventive and everything's done right here. Best black metal I've heard in some time.

Tue Oct 16, 2012 5:58 am

metachronos

Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 454
Location: Green Bay, WI

The Sword has a new album coming out next week. Seeing them in early November for the 3rd time. Psyched!

Wed Oct 17, 2012 2:51 pm

futuristxen

Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 19377
Location: Tighten Your Bible Belt

that cover is awesome. if people wanted to turn this into an awesome metal album cover thing on top of everything else...I wouldn't complain. I think metal album art is the best. When I was living in Mass, I used to go downstairs half to JUST look at the neighbors album covers in his vinyl collection.

Wed Oct 17, 2012 8:56 pm

metachronos

Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 454
Location: Green Bay, WI

Yeah, given that they're a stoner metal band I think the cover is especially fitting.

Thu Oct 18, 2012 9:14 am

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

My opinion on Between the Buried and Me has shifted slightly. I still think Colors and The Great Misdirection are shit on their own, but I recently decided to consider them within the scope of BTBAM's entire discography. Taken that way, they are actually fairly impressive as symbols of progression. In other words, if you have the time (roughly five hours) and the patience to listen to their catalog from beginning to end their is something more substantial than the parts. You start to hear musical references in the form of repeating riffs to previous works. Themes. Cycles. It's actually kind of impressive.

BTBAM also put out a nice covers albums full of gems. Most of their covers are from bands like Metallica and Pantera, but they also worked in some Queen, Smashing Pumpkins, and even Counting Crows. It's worth checking out.

Sun Dec 02, 2012 9:04 am

NeuroA champion of Kurtis SP

Joined: 19 Jul 2002
Posts: 7852

yeah i dont listen to them a lot, but i like what they do, their mesh of sounds actually sounds pretty fresh to me you can hear a lot of different influences not just metal and it doesnt sound just thrown together to me, vocals are very very rough when not singing it always takes me a bit to adjust to that, i really like their jam session type style though, and their albums as a whole, playing track 1 til the end type deal are great musical listens , pretty technical and pretty soft but blending in and out real smoothly for the most part, i actually like their later albums more

Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:49 am

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

Metal music is really beginning to suck these days. I know part of the problem is that there is just an oversaturation of the market, and that the unintelligible nature of the lyrics make it really differentiate between bands. So then you have bands trying to "out-extreme" one another, or they revert back to old formulations, which is why you see bands like The Sword, and half of Relapse Records' roster. There also seems to be a big trend toward doom these days.

That said, I stumbled upon this band who, despite their terribly emo name, are quite good. Beyond Terror Beyond Grace - Nadir is some sort of doom, but instead of sounding sludgy and bored they have a really melancholic feel that I think eludes most groups. There is something really sad in their music, even when it's at it's most aggressive. There are also plenty of drum fills, which is rare in the genre. Amid a Willowtip roster that seems to focus more and more on either neo-grind or overly technical stuff, this is a record that really stands out.

I also came across another band whose music is by the numbers, but that's okay because their name has panache: Vaginal Bear Trap.

Also, our previous discussion on BTBAM has reminded me that a lot of the bands I really used to enjoy or now either defunct or have changed their style so completely that they're not even the same band. I really tried to listen to Parallax II and it's filled with enjoy good parts to be interesting, but all of these are unfortunately overshadowed by really terrible, and virtually unlistenable, parts that are infuriating. This band thinks it's the metal Queen meets Ziggy Stardust, which means it should really just fuck off. There's even a little Primus.

Sat Jan 12, 2013 11:25 pm

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

Fuck I'm Dead. Just like their name, their sound is straight forward turbo guitar as penis, drums as the dude with the camcorder. Bang bang bang, and before you know it the whole album just blew it's load all over your terrible back tattoo. 21 tracks, 26 minutes. Now that's grind.

Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:54 pm

anomalyLoserface

Joined: 22 May 2008
Posts: 2625
Location: DFW, TX

Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:28 pm

mortalthoughtsLAME KID

Joined: 12 Dec 2002
Posts: 11616
Location: MI

a friend from high school is on guitar
guess this would be considered doom metal?
(yes all those amps are real)

fast forward to about 5 minutes for some faster stuff on the first video
< </object>